Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. – Helen Keller

43 Days: Evening

Long day, and I’m exhausted. Actually considering hitting the hay considerably earlier than usual tonight. That may have to do with my limited food intake today, or the fact that most of my sustenance today was juice so my body’s probably starting to detox. Or it might just have to do with the super-awesome-intense Spin class I went to this evening.

This morning was juice (carrot, apple & ginger) for breakfast, but for lunch I had organic squash soup, some lovely baguette, and brie. First dinner was more juice (this time beet, ginger, carrot, pineapple, and apple), then about an hour later I ate three eggs scrambled in a bit of olive oil.

I rode my new/old bike for the first time tonight. My boyfriend bought it for me from his old landlord, and it’s a cute old bike, red, with fenders and a basket. It’s not a cruiser – it’s got skinny tires that I would normally call racing tires, but it also has brakes like kids bikes do, the ones where you have to backpedal to get the bike to stop. Consequently I ran headfirst into a (very prickly) bush this afternoon to avoid running out into traffic. Passersby laughed hysterically. Oh, who am I kidding – I laughed hysterically. It turns out I’m complete shite at braking without hand brakes. I might have to get this thing converted before I hurt myself, but we’ll give it a couple of more tries before giving up completely.

Like I said before, Spin was ridiculously cool. The teacher played mostly hip hop, which I appreciated since normally Spin classes tend to go more club/techno and that can get annoying. I prefer the slightly angrier song selection so I can work that energy into my routine. My hips and back hurt a little bit, but overall I feel good. I love that Spin is a lot like dancing on a bike, and I always work up a fantastic sweat. I feel so accomplished just by living through a class! One of the songs that was played was brand new to me, and I ended up coming home and watching it a few times on Youtube – Beyonce’s “Run the World”. I love the dance routines & costumes on this one.

Also, since this blog entry seems to be in no particular order, I finished putting together my company’s Flickr page today. You can see it here if you’re at all interested in pretty interior design photos.

And did you know that Steve Madden has great customer service? I recently won a contest through their Facebook site, in which I got a year’s subscription to Paper Magazine and a 35% off coupon for use on their website. Part of the process of winning involved phone conversations and emails back and forth with the nicest guy, Dan, who works in their marketing department. Then I ordered some shoes this weekend, and accidentally used the wrong credit card (oops!). I got an email today saying that my order didn’t go through, and if I wanted help I could call their toll-free number for assistance, but in the end I decided not to since I really shouldn’t be spending more money on clothes right now. I just deleted the email and went back to work, but an hour or two later, got a call from the company, asking if everything was OK and if I would rather use a different credit card to ensure my order went through. Such a refreshing moment in this age of automated shopping carts. So of course I ponied up and bought the damn shoes even though I said I wasn’t going to. These are the two pairs I got – rather basic but I only own two pairs of flats, and one is leopard print, so these will work well for me.

"Krusshh" in Raspberry Suede, by Steve Madden. You can't see it here, but the back has a cute little gold zipper and a tassel in the same color as the shoe. I like that the low sides look a little like khussas.

"Kingdom" in Blush Patent, by Steve Madden. Prim and proper, and just what I need for the skinny jeans I will be fitting into by my birthday.